Definition Of Metaphysics

Outside of the metaphysical world, we look at things as only simple things, or just as things of what they are. For example, when we look at a pencil, we only think of it as the material thing of pencil. We do not think about what makes it a pencil, other than the physical materials. However, when we think with a metaphysical point of view, we begin to think of other things of what makes a thing a thing, or in this example, what makes a pencil a pencil. When the subject of metaphysics is involved, we think of several compositions of a thing, including a thing’s esse, its cause, the principles of their nature and of being. Having asserted the metaphysical approach of how to explain the makeup of a thing and what makes it be it, I will introduce …show more content…
Because existence is an attribute of a thing, it belongs to that thing. Also, we must acknowledge that sometimes attributes may result in a twofold dependency- one on the subject and the other on their cause. For example, in hot coffee, the attribute of hot is dependent on both the coffee and on fire because it would not exist without one or the other. Similarly to this example, we must understand that a thing’s sui generis attribute of existence (the unique attribute of esse), involves dependency on its subject, but also on a cause, which is the supernatural (Knasas). Having understood that the attribute of existence is dependent on a cause, I will introduce Saint Thomas Aquinas’ view On Being and Essence of a thing and compare it to class notes about the causal connection between the subject of metaphysics and the …show more content…
In this case, the cause of the first thing is a result of an infinite series of things just like the first. In other words, before the first thing is caused, it would have to be caused by a second thing, which would have to be caused by a third, and the third by a fourth, and so on. In general, we would need an infinite endless series of things that cause each other before the first thing can be caused by the last, but this is impossible. If there is an infinity number of causes, then the first thing would never come to be caused, and therefore this argument is